Game 144 (Team)

[Hawk_]

DuPont's write up shed a lot of light on the game so I thought I would fill in out our team's part.

I'm not sure where I was in the que but we ended up with GI-DE-BL. This turned out very badly for us.

Our first problem was that we were unfamiliar with the resurgent map for R5-R8 and had a heck of a time locating pop centers. The Gi and DE were unable to capture their regions until turn 6.

The way the teams ended up we looked like a big bullseye on turn 6 being in the middle and grabbing our regions late. For a moment we held 3 of the 10 regions but it didn't last long.

While the RD-DA-SO hammered the BL the AN-GN moved in on the DE. The GI was still actively fighting the WA in R5.

We were pretty much out of it by turn 10. Did anyone invade the RD while all his armies were in R8 early on?

We decided to move into R7. We had a to get out of the middle. We held a group vote and decided the corner was best.

Ultimately, I think we did shape the end of the game some by weakening the AN-GN-EL and allowing the RD-SO-DA to prevail.

It seems that being in the middle is really bad in these team games.
I doubt there was any way we could have avoided being overrun with our central starting positions.

Quicker regional control might have allowed us to head into 9 earlier I suppose. Either way I think DE-GI-BL was a difficult choice for this particular game board.

Again congratulations to the winners for some excellent strategy from draft to finish.

I forgot-

Iron Willed- Panda and Helix for never quitting

Infamous- The SO Jumpingfist for use of the dreaded Domes and for destroying towns.

[kevindusi]

I came into this one on turn 11 to pick up a strong RD position that had been dropped (presumably due to something outside of the game since the player dropped games across the board). I quickly found that Cloud and JumpingFist had things pretty well under control, with us controlling the Eastern side of the map - regions 3, 6, 9, and 10 (DA picking up 10 on turn 11). It was apparent at that point that moving west was the only option, so we jumped into regions 5 and 8, both of which were being contested at the time by various folks. DA led the charge into 5, my RD jumped into 8, and SO provided support to both.

5 ended up being an absolute mess, and 8 wasn't too much better, but the advantage of military attacks (capturing or relocating emissaries) proved to be the deciding factor there. Once 8 was firmly under the RD boot, my forces took a side trip into region 5 to knock a couple of things loose for DA - mainly the two cities, which were under control by dubious persons. With SO following in the wake of the DA/RD invasion into 5, we moved on to region 4 because the AN needed a slapping (he had successfully counter-invaded into region 6 and taken it from DA by now). A few turns later, we had secured region 4 via military conquest (and SO blowing things up) and we flipped the two cities (IN and NK) to DA, getting him the final pieces to the region, allowing us to declare victory.

A few fun things about this game:
1) To answer Hawk's question - nobody ever moved on region 3 that I can see. Certainly nothing after turn 10. I had idle emissaries waiting to be bribed, a king sitting at a city waiting for a scandal, etc. Region 3 seemed to be largely ignored.
2) JF and Cloud are scary good, and selfless, players. A lot of coordination with these guys.
3) I got to use a portal!! I imagine the AN was a bit surprised to see a RD take his city in region 6 and then show up at a village in 4 the next turn. Apparently early in the game the team had mapped out the two sides of the portal (see #2).
4) The magic kingdoms took a hit (in my opinion) with recent changes... but if allowed to develop like SO did in this game, they just get vicious. JF was blowing things up, creating domes, denigrating, teleporting around, summoning wights, etc... He was the behind-the-scenes member of our team that made the win possible.

I'm glad I got to be involved in this one. My only regret was apparently I never got to fight DuPont, which likely is a first for us in any game, including anonymous ones.

Well done to my allies, who had a lot more to deal with than I did - most people simply avoided my troops, which was all I really used.

Nominations:
Chancellor - Cloud and JF, for an insane amount of coordination and knowledge between the two of them.
Infamous - Wynand, for his annoying invisible AN army that kept using 171 to retake cities from me.
Iron Willed - Hawk, for his group that never gave up, and DuPont, for hanging in when both his allies dropped.

[Lord Diamond]

Updated Game Details.

[Jumpingfist]

(SO) of RD DA SO team

The game started I was excited about our team as I felt it was likely the most experience on average. Iriani, Cloud, Jumpingfist. I think Iriani was the sleeper pick of the draft not having a lot of posts but actually a rather experience player.

After tossing out a few ideas about how we wanted to draft we went after the RD figuring that no one would likely draft the DW if the RD was already off the board. (This game was before the 171 changes). So we looked at the DW as a fall back kingdom for us if we could not get enough in our area. 2nd round we got the DA of old but still starts with more gold after factoring food and ships than any other kingdom. For our third pick we went after the WI but ended up getting the SO.

1st priority was to get the regions. We quickly learned there was no DW and also no RA. T3 DA was the only kingdom to claim a region. I would have had mine as well but messed up an order, if only order checker was up and running. T3 also was our first sighting of a hostile presence, the BL army was running around R9. RD was running around R2 gathering a few PCs before th WI got control. T4 we got control of our 3 regions and were already telling the RD get the hell out of R2 before we have two front war. Lucky for us it seems the DuPonts team had there hands full and I am guessing thrilled the RD did not continue to make trouble for them. BL was now beginning to take SO controlled villages. We were not exactly sure what his plans were but I was raising wizards with everything I had and was following the BL around taking back villages with 170 orders. By T6 BL was taking two villages a turn I would take one back but RD after force marching 2 turn was here to help. DA was our eyes and ears and this point. Highering our only priestess and grabbing artifacts. Divining Enemy PCs. I had found the BL prince sitting in the BL city with nothing to do. Got a major and minor skeleton out of him. We knew the BL capital I believe there was only 1 mountain PC so it was obvious. T8 I had two p6 ready to go and RD landed on the BL capital. BL capital fell, both his groups were blocked in R9, had a major skeleton released, was kicked from consul, DA launched political assault on R10.
We were finishing up R10 and getting ready for our next phase. Kicking around ideas for where to strike next. When Iriani gave us news he could no longer play. I saw Messi of the Alamaze just sitting on the sidelines so asked him to come play. Kevin already provided how the rest of the game took shape.

Highlights for me:
- setting a trap and finding the DE in it the next turn. Killing 5 DE mages in one turn. Then the next turn killed another Mage and summoning death on his group so the RD could route and finish him off.
- not loosing any of my mages. I ended the game with 5p7s and 4p6s
- Nuking everything
- working with Cloud and Dusi is always a good time.
- my favorite mistake was cloud and I set a trap for the EL and 2 turns later he walked in. I misjudged how strong my summon death spell would be. I killed all 4 of his brigade making it so the EL could not Choas and overrun his two p4 wizards in the group. Never though the EL would loose more brigades than the DE did to summon death.

Nomination:
Chancellor: Cloud and The Deliver - great communication the whole game. Dusi always had a sample order ready days ahead of time, Cloud always flexible and willing to support the team in any way.
Iron Willed: Helix (DE) look at the stats, he was here on T24 and had 0 PCs. After crushing everything he had here came a little brigade I am guessing to try and take a village if he could find one I did not nuke.
Infamous: The Deliverer. Pinch hitter hits a walk-off HR. Their was a bit of grumbling when he joined team.

[Panda]

Not sure I can judge all the categories, but one def comes to mind -

Iron Willed - Helix - Was, literally, Iron Willed

[Ry Vor]

Well done to my allies, who had a lot more to deal with than I did - most people simply avoided my troops, which was all I really used.

Nominations:
Chancellor - Cloud and JF, for an insane amount of coordination and knowledge between the two of them.
Infamous - Wynand, for his annoying invisible AN army that kept using 171 to retake cities from me.
Iron Willed - Hawk, for his group that never gave up, and DuPont, for hanging in when both his allies dropped.

Nice write up.

[Ry Vor]

(SO) of RD DA SO team

The game started I was excited about our team as I felt it was likely the most experience on average. Iriani, Cloud, Jumpingfist. I think Iriani was the sleeper pick of the draft not having a lot of posts but actually a rather experience player.

After tossing out a few ideas about how we wanted to draft we went after the RD figuring that no one would likely draft the DW if the RD was already off the board. (This game was before the 171 changes). So we looked at the DW as a fall back kingdom for us if we could not get enough in our area. 2nd round we got the DA of old but still starts with more gold after factoring food and ships than any other kingdom. For our third pick we went after the WI but ended up getting the SO.

1st priority was to get the regions. We quickly learned there was no DW and also no RA. T3 DA was the only kingdom to claim a region. I would have had mine as well but messed up an order, if only order checker was up and running. T3 also was our first sighting of a hostile presence, the BL army was running around R9. RD was running around R2 gathering a few PCs before th WI got control. T4 we got control of our 3 regions and were already telling the RD get the hell out of R2 before we have two front war. Lucky for us it seems the DuPonts team had there hands full and I am guessing thrilled the RD did not continue to make trouble for them. BL was now beginning to take SO controlled villages. We were not exactly sure what his plans were but I was raising wizards with everything I had and was following the BL around taking back villages with 170 orders. By T6 BL was taking two villages a turn I would take one back but RD after force marching 2 turn was here to help. DA was our eyes and ears and this point. Highering our only priestess and grabbing artifacts. Divining Enemy PCs. I had found the BL prince sitting in the BL city with nothing to do. Got a major and minor skeleton out of him. We knew the BL capital I believe there was only 1 mountain PC so it was obvious. T8 I had two p6 ready to go and RD landed on the BL capital. BL capital fell, both his groups were blocked in R9, had a major skeleton released, was kicked from consul, DA launched political assault on R10.
We were finishing up R10 and getting ready for our next phase. Kicking around ideas for where to strike next. When Iriani gave us news he could no longer play. I saw Messi of the Alamaze just sitting on the sidelines so asked him to come play. Kevin already provided how the rest of the game took shape.

Highlights for me:
- setting a trap and finding the DE in it the next turn. Killing 5 DE mages in one turn. Then the next turn killed another Mage and summoning death on his group so the RD could route and finish him off.
- not loosing any of my mages. I ended the game with 5p7s and 4p6s
- Nuking everything
- working with Cloud and Dusi is always a good time.
- my favorite mistake was cloud and I set a trap for the EL and 2 turns later he walked in. I misjudged how strong my summon death spell would be. I killed all 4 of his brigade making it so the EL could not Choas and overrun his two p4 wizards in the group. Never though the EL would loose more brigades than the DE did to summon death.

Nomination:
Chancellor: Cloud and The Deliver - great communication the whole game. Dusi always had a sample order ready days ahead of time, Cloud always flexible and willing to support the team in any way.
Iron Willed: Helix (DE) look at the stats, he was here on T24 and had 0 PCs. After crushing everything he had here came a little brigade I am guessing to try and take a village if he could find one I did not nuke.
Infamous: The Deliverer. Pinch hitter hits a walk-off HR. Their was a bit of grumbling when he joined team.

Wow, does seem like an intimidating team and as I have said before, a very astute draft.

[kevindusi]

I saw Messi of the Alamaze just sitting on the sidelines so asked him to come play.

Could I be the "Gigi Buffon of Alamaze" or the "Peter Schmeichel of Alamaze" or the "Mad Jens of Alamaze" (my favorite)? Don't get me wrong, being referred to as the Messi of anything is very flattering... but as a goalkeeper it's more flattering to be connected to a World Cup winning side, a team that did The Treble, or (again, my favorite) part of The Invincibles.

Going forward, I would like to be referred to as Mad Dusi. Not to be confused with Madmartigan.... though he was also awesome.

[Panda]

Just wanted to add a quick note to this game -
I thought the AN player did a bang-up job the entire game. Played with great anticipation and "touch".
Did "the mostest with the leastest".

[Wynand]

Just wanted to add a quick note to this game -
I thought the AN player did a bang-up job the entire game. Played with great anticipation and "touch".
Did "the mostest with the leastest".

Thanks Panda, much appreciated.